Happy xmas from work

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

4 Raven's Ridge Videos

Pumped, Silverstar vacation.... yes

Day at Sandy Ridge

The weather guy said to brace for some of the hottest weather of the year. he was right, we hit 75 today and it looks like it'll be around the low 80's for awhile. This type of weather makes our NW winters a breeze. Had an awesome ride with Laurie, Evan, Amy and Dennis today. Laurie is really progressing after only her 3rd time on her new bike. Here are some pictures and short vids from the day. (Don't all you million readers worry, i'll have my GoPro back up and running for our Whistler trip this year.) Oh some of the pictures are kind of weird because i only had the iPhone... and forgot to turn off HDR.













Wild Raspberry's were popping up everywhere.


Me

Sandy Ridge - More Mountain Bike Videos

Evan

Sandy RIdge - More Mountain Bike Videos

Amy and Dennis

Sandy Ridge - Amy & Dennis - More Mountain Bike Videos

Killer day at Post Canyon

2 shuttles up and some good sessioning, here is a video of the day.

Ryan H giving a tour of Post Canyon on pinkbike.com

Lots of climbing + jumping + descending = Riding Post Canyon.

Saturday is the day to get out to Post Canyon in Hood River.


Temps hit the mid 80's... the bugs were crazy thick and the dirt was starting to get dry. Finally feels like summer.

It was a pretty busy day at Post. A lot of people there and a lot of kids. Its god to see parents out there with their kids so they can ride Family Man, Middle School and Pump Track.



One of my favorite things about riding there are the views of many cascade volcanoes. Here is Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and St. Helens.


Look to the right and you have Mt. Hood.


Here is a short video of our climb up. Everytime we ran into a FR area we decided to stop and do some riding.

Post Canyon with Dan - More Mountain Bike Videos

awesome day out there.. can't wait to go back out. Hopefully this next weekend.

A tale of two ridges

Took the opportunity to go out and ride Sandy Ridge with Evan and his wife Amy on Saturday and then hit up Raven's Ridge on Sunday with Todd and a few guys.

Saturday was awesome, great weather, great dirt and Amy and I took our new bikes out for the first time. She rides a Santa Cruz Butcher with a very custom spec. Evan kills at getting color matched components without it getting stupid.

Amy killed it on the ride, we did 3 laps, pedaled up the road and hit the trails down. The weather and scenery was so nice that i should have taken my GoPro... next time.


The hardtail I decided to build (banshee paradox) was in a ridable state so i couldn't wait to take it out. Not only have i not owned a hardtail for a long time but i've never owned a 29'r. In fact the only time i've ridden a 29'r was in a parking lot so i didn't know what to expect. Needless to say it ripped. I now know why people ride trail with big wheels.







Amy and Evan hit this turn hard then it was time to head back down to the car to go grab some chow at Island Teriyaki

Amy and Evan at Sandy - More Mountain Bike Videos

Sunday came around and it was time to get out the big bike and head to Raven's Ridge. I have never been on this trail so i didn't have a lot to expect. Needless to say it was rad, even if it decided to start raining a bit early on.

No photos but i did edit a short video of the day. Thanks to Travis for supplying the truck to shuttle full laps all day.

Raven's Ridge - More Mountain Bike Videos

Photo Credits go to Evan (the nice pictures) the other ones are by me.

Good February Ride

David and I went out to do some riding at Blackrock during a nice day in February.

David is a shredder so keeping up with him all day (and by all day, i mean ALL DAY) made me feel like i got better and faster. we did a ton of laps, dodged a lot of falling debris, cleared a tree from the trail, did a ton of laps and ate at Paula's.

David and I saw a cool line before the Road Gap on Sicktar Gnar so we decided to session it a few times. Its a small transfer into a berm... very fun. Here is a video.

David:

Blackrock Shorts - More Mountain Bike Videos

Me:

third try on a new line. - More Mountain Bike Videos

Also we ran into Patrick who took a video of David and I training the Airplane Hanger.

David and I at BR riding the Airplane Hanger - More Mountain Bike Videos

Good Day.

Holy crap i'm lazy.. i haven't put anything on here in a long time. Here's a video from racing karts w/ Laurie

Karts with Laurie at Sykat! - More Mountain Bike Videos

Winter is slow and boring

My schedule is now work, exercise, sleep with some video games thrown in. At least i have a few bike things on my mind.... Vital and PB have been doing a great job keeping content flowing PLUS i bought a new lid for the season. I snagged a TLD Love/Hate carbon lid for a great deal on BikeBling of course i just found an even better deal here. Oh well, missed out on a savings of $20.00. Regardless i got to use their HOLIDAY10 coupon code and it'll arrive tomorrow.

I was thinking about getting the beta blue or the SuperStar Red/Blue TLD D2 helmet but everyone has one now and every time i had either added to my cart.. i just couldn't pull the trigger.

you won't see a lot of love/hates anymore because they are being closed out and according to the TLD site the D2 Carbon = on a hiatus.. maybe permanently... i don't know. Anyway here is the lid that will be on my doorstep tomorrow. I think the name of this helmet is great because you either love it or hate it :)

Anyway other good MTB things to look forward to: 17 questions by Steve Peat will be out on Xmas Eve... be sure to check it on Vital. Life Cycles BluRay has supposedly been shipped by PB That should be in my mailbox soon and I'm going to start stockpiling parts of a new Rune Build.... stay tuned for that as i'm just about done putting together my preliminary build list. Will share when i'm done. Have a Merry Xmas and I hope everyone gets a lot of rad bike related gifts.

"I Ride for Nick's Eyes" No Pity Party, just rider's wanting to help out a fellow rider and all around good dude.

I don't know Nick but i like to think the mountain bike community (especially the gravity part of it) is pretty tight knit and we're always keen to help out a fellow rider. Well Nick's eyes aren't doing so hot and long story short... health insurance doesn't have his back and no one wants nick to go blind so Demon Dirt, Banshee and others are trying to help Nick foot the bill for his surgery. Simply by purchasing a shirt, stickers or jersey will help Nick out. So reach into your wallet, don't be a pussy and buy something. Go to their store here: DEMON DIRT STORE



Straight from Nick -

Looks like a rad trail and some solid riding.

Quick ride in Hood RIver, love Post Canyon.

Short Post Canyon, Drop Out - More Mountain Bike Videos

PG kills it at Pacific.

Not a whole lot has to be said here, the polish legend w/ black links is sweet. Big props to PG, Robs says if you have a banshee, PG probably built it.




www.bansheebikes.com.
awesome

Life Cycles

I've watched this about 100 times and i pre-ordered my copy. I knew it would be better than Suspect... but this much better.. i couldn't have predicted.



Listen to what Clay Porter has to say...

Breakfast with Clay Porter: Life Cycles - More Mountain Bike Videos

Good Old Fashion Family Vacation

Family Vacation to Whistler - More Mountain Bike Videos

I miss Whistler

Summer Gravity Camps 2010 - Week 5 - Adult Week from Summer Gravity Camps on Vimeo.

So you want your girlfriend or spouse to ride mountain bikes with you....

For all of us that ski, snowboard and ride mountain bikes there comes a time where we think "Man, Riding is soooo great I bet my girlfriend/spouse would love to do this with me!" This is a prime example of Man's optimistic mindset and His ability to overlook the means to get to his ideal end. The following is synonymous with any action sport we decide to share but since i like bikes more than any anything i'll use it as the base for the following scenario and steps.

Lets look at what we'll cover.

I. Why we think its a great idea to ride with our significant other.

II. How we typically go about teaching them.

III. How it turns out.

IV. Why it fails.

V. How to do it correctly.

Why we think its a great idea:

In our minds this is simple 1 + 1 = 2 Math. Take 1 thing we love, put it with another and wham, you have an awesome combo. Its just like adding chili to Mac n Cheese to make Chili-mac. Make sense?

Not only do you want to share the experience of riding but you also want to show all the cool stuff you can do on a bike. Lets face it pictures/video on the computer never do a feature or terrain justice and if your experiences are like mine your lady of the house starts to roll her eyes the more and more you yell "Hey come check this out!!!!" from the computer room right when she sat down to watch TV with some tea in hand. So how do we think we can solve this dilemma? Easy by bringing our girl along with us, thats how.

How we typically go about teaching:

We have a conflict of interest right away. We want to show off but we need to teach. So what usually happens is we drag our girlfriends/spouses on an "easy" trail that still has some cool stuff for us to ride. Things usually start off well by us giving a few pointers then its time to ride! We start riding until we come to the first corner, decent or whatever where our girlfriend is scared to do it. We try and reassure her that it is really easy but she won't try it. We get a bit frustrated because we "know" she can do it but we still move on down the trail. That is when we encounter the next section of the trail that is a bit over her head. The whole process happens over and over until you get frustrated to the point where she is pissed at you and you're ready to get home.

How it typically turns out:

Bad, she hates riding and thinks its even stupider than before.

Why it fails:

This fails because all we want to do is share the ride. We forget that we need to actually teach how to ride. We're lucky that with Mountain Biking your girlfriend may actually know how to ride a bike.. So this should be easy right? Nope... because mountain biking involves a lot more for just riding the bike. This leads me into my next point though....

How to do it correctly:

The first step is to get to the dirt but don't show up at the trails you like to ride, even many of the "skills areas" at your local trails may be too much. You need to find some dirt that is really really mellow.. so mellow that your student may find it silly. If she does, run her through it and then move on.. otherwise just keep riding in that area and then going on to more dirt that is incrementally more difficult as she gets comfortable. Here is the key that will make this a lot of fun for her, let her ride around without you giving crazy amounts of tips.

It may take a long time for her to get up to the skill level where you guys can go out for an actual ride

BONUS TIPS:

1: If you know someone else that is just learning to ride too have them come along with your girlfriend.. she may really like that.. but make sure you ask her if she is cool with it.

2: Buy her some new Sombrio shorts, socks and gloves. After her 2nd or 3rd time out.

Follow these steps and your chance of having fun riding with your girlfriend will increase.

best SS contest in years..

Good work to all the riders that came out and heal up to everyone that got hurt.

Rad.

Rad!